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By Erica Smiley, on August 8th, 2011
Struggling for the rights of workers at swollen multinational companies like Walmart or within the individual homes in which domestic workers toil is hard enough. But add onto this the additional hardship of being discriminated against based on a workers’ gender and you really have a fight.
On Sunday, August 7th at the National Conference of Jobs with Justice, the members of the National Domestic Workers Alliance teamed up with the women of OUR Walmart to discuss the challenges and opportunities of organizing from the perspective of women. Domestic workers spoke about being discouraged from identifying as workers when employers called them “a part of the family”, while Walmart Associates discussed making significantly lower wages than men doing the same job. Both were hopeful moving forward in campaigns to develop and strengthen a framework for collective bargaining for domestic workers and in outlining an enforceable anti-discrimination policy for Walmart to adopt.
The testimony was so moving, that Barbara Ehrenreich–author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America–remarked on Democracy Now surrounding the book’s ten year anniversary:
“But I was very excited yesterday. I went to the Jobs with Justice conference in Washington, D.C. That’s an organization
Continue reading Organizing Workers and Women: Domestic Workers and OUR Walmart Organize Exchange
Today Governments, Employers and Workers of the world at the 100th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland adopted the First Convention and accompanying Recommendation on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. When the vote was announced, domestic workers unfurled a banner that read “C189: Congratulations! Now for the “domestic work” of governments- RATIFY.”
Support for the Convention was overwhelming, with 396 voting in favor, and only 16 voting against (all employers), with an additional 63 abstaining. The Recommendation passed with 90% approval.
Juana Flores, US worker delegate to the ILC “With the passage of this International Convention and Recommendation, I am emotional thinking of all of the domestic workers- their sweat, their hard work, the abuses they’ve endured—and I myself have lived this experience. Today, at a global level, the work of cleaning houses, caring for children, the elderly, and disabled is recognized as work– work like any other.”
This is truly a historic event and a step forward for an estimated100 million domestic workers worldwide, primarily women.
Some governments attending the ILO have already indicated their willingness to ratify the Convention. Domestic workers from around the world will continue their organizing with efforts at the
Continue reading Domestic Workers win Global Recognition with the Adoption of the ILO Convention for Domestic Workers
By jwjnational, on June 14th, 2011
Today on Capitol Hill the Jobs with Justice joined the Excluded Workers’ Congress in convening a leadership summit to celebrate the re-introduction of the Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation (POWER) Act by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA).
This legislation would expand the right to organize and ensure protections to workers by removing the fear of employer retaliation. Speaking at the event, Senator Menendez said, “The act would give workers a voice when reporting abuses by curbing the fear of deportation”.
The event entitled, The Power To Work With Dignity: Expanding the Right To Organize For Inclusion In Our Fundamental Rights put in dialogue community leaders, congressionals, leaders in the labor, civil, and immigrant rights movements, and immigrant workers who have led courageous workplace organizing campaigns.
At the event, a guestworker, day laborer and a former domestic worker shared their stories to underscore the importance of providing worker protections for immigrant workers. Their accounts match those workers all across the country, many of whom experience unsafe working conditions, stolen wages, and violent threats. One of the workers, Josue—a day laborer who came to the U.S.
Continue reading POWER Act Introduced
By jwjnational, on June 9th, 2011 
On the evening of June 7th, the governments, employers, and workers at the International Labor Organization (ILO), the organization that sets standards on international labor rights and monitors how they are implemented, adopted the 19 articles of the International Labor Convention for Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The text sets forth fundamental labor  standards for domestic workers– a huge step forward in the struggle to win human rights for domestic work, recognition that they deserve labor protections like any other worker, and respect for the fact that domestic workers are a force to be reckoned with!
At the end of the session, the domestic workers from around the world burst into song– first a song from domestic workers in South Africa, and then “Solidarity Forever.” According to the National Domestic Workers Alliance who were present in Geneva, you could feel not only the tremendous victory for domestic workers, but also the injection of spirit for the trade unionists, governments, and ILO staff.
There is more to do. In the coming days, domestic workers will negotiate the accompanying Recommendation to the Convention, which provides more detail and guidance to governments. And the final
Continue reading Domestic Workers Win Historic Victory at the ILO
By jwjnational, on May 20th, 2011
AFL-CIO President Trumka and Domestic Workers United sing partnership agreement.
On May 10-12 in New York, NY, the Excluded Workers Congress convened its first International Conference to strategize the way forward for workers in sectors unprotected by current US labor laws. With allies from throughout the world, including worker organizations from India and South Africa, the discussion focused on identifying pressure points in global capital where excluded workers could continue to build power. Annanya Bhattacharjee of the Asia Floor Wage campaign lifted up strategies that crossed national borders, lifting the floor for everyone. Pat Horn, of the South African organization StreetNet International, drew similarities between excluded workers in the US and the movement to promote the rights of street vendors in South Africa. And Ashim Roy of the New Trade Union Initiative in India, lifted up the need from stronger coordination across borders, and noted that many of the Indian guestworkers now organized within the National Guestworkers Alliance were members of NTUI back home in India.
Jobs with
Continue reading Excluded Workers Congress Convenes International Conference
 On April 13th, over 200 domestic workers and their supporters from throughout California converged in Sacramento to call for adoption of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Following a rally outside the State Capitol, domestic workers and their supporters packed the hearing room, lobby and staircase for the Assembly Labor committee hearing where the bill was passed 5-1.
Based on New York’s landmark law, the California legislation would create guidelines for employers of housekeepers, nannies and other workers in an industry that is unregulated and without clearly defined work benefits. Authored by Assemblymembers Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and V.Manuel Perez (D-Coachella), the bill now moves on to be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
“This victory signifies that we’re moving step by step on the path to victory to win rights that have never been recognized in this dignified work.” said Maria Reyes of Mujeres Unidas y Activas, a Bay Area Latina workers organization that is spearheading the campaign along with other domestic worker-led groups who make up the
Continue reading Workers Push for California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
By Erica Smiley, on December 10th, 2010
Report Introduced on International Human Rights Day
 At a time when Republicans in several states are threatening to eliminate the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain, representatives from 9 different sectors release “Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at Work,” a report highlighting ongoing efforts to dramatically expand workers’ human right to organize and collectively bargain. The report is being launched around the country, including in San Francisco, New York and Birmingham, Alabama symbolically on December 10th, International Human Rights Day, in order to re-frame the struggle to expand the right-to-organize as a human right.
The Excluded Workers Congress and the report highlight workers who have historically been excluded from labor protections, the right to organize, and underrepresented in the labor movement – domestic workers, farmworkers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, day laborers, guestworkers, workers from Southern “right to work” states, workfare workers and formerly incarcerated workers.
Jobs with Justice has played an active role both nationally and within coalitions from Florida, DC and Tennessee—helping to connect the creation of the Excluded Workers Congress to the necessity of building and strengthening the labor
Continue reading Excluded Workers Unite to Expand the Human Right to Organize
By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on August 31st, 2010
 This morning, New York Governor Patterson signed into law the first-ever U.S. law that upholds domestic workers’ rights. 200,000 nannies, housekeepers, and elder caregivers in New York will be covered under a law that provides guaranteed sick days, overtime pay, a day of rest, protection from discrimination, and notice before termination. This groundbreaking victory is a result of a six-year campaign led by Domestic Workers United and supported by a broad coalition of labor and community organizations, including JwJ coalitions in NY State.
“Today we correct an historic injustice by granting those who care for the elderly, raise our children and clean our homes the same essential rights to which all workers should be entitled,” Governor Paterson said. “I am grateful to the sponsors for their extraordinary efforts to enact this landmark bill, and most of all to those domestic workers who dreamed, planned, organized and then fought for many years, until they were able to see an injustice undone.”
The victory in
Continue reading First-Ever Law Protecting Domestic Workers’ Rights Signed in New York
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